For years the livestock industry has been faced with challenges in regards to bedding materials for animals. Recently wood shavings and other wood by-products have been more difficult to find as more wood pellet plants are being constructed throughout North America to produce wood pellets for heat energy. In the last few years the price has increased and availability has decreased on bagged shavings.
It is known for example from British Application 2,252,709 (Bates) assigned to Unilever and published 19 Aug. 1992 that straw can be formed into pellets and crumbled to make a suitable flooring or bedding material for poultry, pigs and similar animals where the bedding becomes contaminated with excreta, feathers, moisture, food particles and the like and is designed to act a an absorbent for the materials. However this arrangement has apparently achieved little success and is not popular in North America.